Yoon President-elect's Office Contingency Fund of 36.04559 Billion Won to Be Approved Tomorrow

by Yang Nakgyu

Published 05 Apr.2022 18:17(KST)

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is listening to the remarks of attendees at the secretariat meeting held on the morning of the 5th at the Presidential Transition Committee in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Transition Committee Press Corps

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The government will hold an extraordinary Cabinet meeting to review and approve the supplementary budget for relocating President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol's office to Yongsan. The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on the 6th at the Government Seoul Office, presided over by Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum.

The proposed supplementary budget amounts to 36,045,595,000 KRW. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to spend 17,624,178,000 KRW, the Presidential Security Service 6,586,185,000 KRW, and the Ministry of National Defense 11,835,232,000 KRW.

This is about 13.6 billion KRW less than the 49.6 billion KRW initially proposed by the former Presidential Transition Committee. The budget includes remodeling costs for the former Army Chief of Staff’s residence in Hannam-dong, which will be used as the presidential residence, and relocation costs for the Presidential Security Service.

The supplementary budget allocated by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety includes the relocation of the Blue House Secretariat (15,082,230,000 KRW) and remodeling costs for the official residence (2,541,955,000 KRW). The Presidential Security Service’s budget will be used for security facilities such as the Crisis Management Center and the Security Situation Room (6,586,185,000 KRW), while the Ministry of National Defense’s budget will cover office relocation costs (11,835,232,000 KRW).

Additionally, the non-command departments currently occupying the 5th to 9th floors of the Ministry of National Defense building are expected to be used by the Presidential Secretariat and are included in the supplementary budget. However, relocation costs for the command departments on the 1st to 3rd floors will be included in the second supplementary budget.

Costs related to the relocation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have also been excluded from this supplementary budget. For practical reasons, instead of providing a lump sum for the relocation, it is reported that the Blue House and the Transition Committee agreed that departments involved in the upcoming South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises scheduled for this month will move after the exercises conclude. This means that the remaining costs will be organized and supported in the second supplementary budget. The second supplementary budget will include an additional 13.6 billion KRW for relocation and 3 billion KRW for maintaining the Tongui-dong office (for two months).

Accordingly, systems such as the Tactical Command and Control Automation System (C4I) operated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff are expected to be relocated sequentially at a later date. The system, currently operated within the Joint Chiefs of Staff bunker, has been noted as difficult to relocate in a short period.

Meanwhile, on the 20th of last month, President-elect Yoon estimated the total relocation cost to be 49.6 billion KRW, including 11.8 billion KRW for relocating the Joint Chiefs of Staff building, 25.2 billion KRW for remodeling the Ministry of National Defense building, 9.9 billion KRW for relocating the Presidential Security Service, and 2.5 billion KRW for remodeling the former Army Chief of Staff’s residence in Hannam-dong to be used as the presidential residence.